Posts Tagged: self-talk

Most messages that pertain to beauty describe a fixed point. Beautiful is a goal, a set of characteristics that must be held up and striven for, a way of being that is reserved for a select few. Beautiful is something that can be achieved with ferocious dedication to exercise, generous investment in cosmetics, and meticulous attention to grooming. Beautiful is precious, difficult, and extremely narrow. In these messages, beauty is distant, foreign, tantalizing, and other. It is a destination at which we may never arrive, but which we must always be scrambling toward.READ MORE

Body blues can hit for a thousand different reasons. Many of those reasons are big and heavy and far-reaching and nothing that can be “fixed” by a simple behavioral change or shift in consciousness. Body blues vary in depth and breadth, and I’ve no intention of minimizing the challenges posed by that constant, low-level drone of self-loathing that can settle into your life and linger for ages.

But some body blues are more fleeting. Sometimes you’ve felt good for a nice, long stretch then get hit by a surprising setback. Sometimes you can feel leaden and discouraged, but sense that a shift toward positivity is within reach. Sometimes you know that taking action will help. Maybe just a little. So here are some suggestions for activities and ideas that might help you beat the body blues.READ MORE

Occasionally, someone will pipe up in a conversation about body image to request consideration of pride and vanity. Suggestions of praising one’s own body aloud – either into a mirror or in conversation with others – can seem not only challenging, but downright conceited to some. Lavishing adoration upon one’s physical form is so far from the norm that it can feel foreign, uncomfortable, even dirty and shameful. Body love and self-acceptance are important, but at what point do we veer over into body worship and self-absorption?READ MORE